Hasta La Creative!

What’s top of mind for marketers and investors right now? Judging by last week’s Consumer Analysts Group of New York meeting last week in Boca Raton, Fla., it’s the specter of acquisition, the need for cost cutting — oh, and Satanism and a glue shortage. Here we present seven takeaways from the conference, in which 28 consumer packaged-goods companies laid out a road map for the year ahead to analysts.

Price cuts ahead

For those who are into signs, Edgewell Personal Care, maker of Schick and private-label blades for such retailers such as Walmart, saw its stock plunge exactly 6.66% –the supposed mark of the devil — on Feb. 23 after P&G Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller announced at the conference that Gillette will cut razor blade prices a whopping 12% on average starting March 30. The devil is in the details, of course, and P&G provided few. A spokesman said all Gillette blades, even high-end Fusion ProShield, could see some reduction. Mr. Moeller said prices on some blades could fall as much as 20%. An Edgewell spokesman noted that P&G already had been cutting blade prices, though Nielsen data from Deutsche Bank show only by 1% for the 12 weeks ended Jan. 28. The move aims to reverse share gains by cheaper blades that include Edgewell’s private labels, Harry’s (which moved into Target last year) and Unilever’s Dollar Shave Club.

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